The initiative came from Prime Minister Vlad Filat, who argued that some Cabinet members, who haven’t yet vacated their seats in Parliament, should attend the meeting with the Swedish delegation. Parliament’s meeting on Friday , October 16, has been postponed until Tuesday, October 20.

Macedonian prime minister hopes that Macedonian would receive a date for start of negotiations for membership in the European Union, now that the European Commission issued a recommendation for launch of the accession talks. In the letter sent to the President of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, PM Nikola …

As part of the pre-election campaign, on Oct. 16, the leader of the puppet regime of Abkhazia, Sergei Bagapsh plans to visit Gali, Chairman of the legitimate government of the Autonomous Republic, Giorgi Baramia said at a news conference on Oct. 16.

A reestablishment of the observers inside Abkhazia and South Ossetia will gradually realize that this is good for all parties, said Goran Lennmarker, OSCE PA President Emeritus and Special Representative on Nagorno-Karabkh and Special Envoy on Georgia. “Russians will gradually realize that this is good for all parties to have …

OSCE PA President Emeritus and Special Representative on Nagorno-Karabakh and Special Envoy on Georgia Goran Lennmarker will visit all three countries in the South Caucasus – Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia, in November. The exact dates of the visit have not yet been decided, the press-service of the PA reported. In …

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boiko Borissov became a bearer of the Cavalier of the Grand Cross for having achieved “great contributions to the Italian Republic”, a Bulgarian Government media statement said on October 15 2009. The award was given by Borissov’s Italian counterpart Silvio Berlusconi at a commemoration ceremony in honour …

The settlement of the Athens-Skopje name row is not an official precondition for Macedonia’s EU accession talks but will create a better climate for the same, ambassadors say. This according to the Swedish and EU ambassadors to Macedonia, Lars Freden and Erwan Fouere. Sweden currently holds the EU presidency.

A  renegade former Macdedonian Orthodox Church, MPC, bishop, Jovan Vraniskovski, has been sentenced to two and a half years in jail for embezzlement by a Macedonian court. A court in the town of Veles found Vraniskowski guilty of embezzling 320,000 euros while in charge of three Macedonian dioceses. He was …

The UN General Assembly has elected Bosnia and Herzegovina a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council, UNSC, to the delight of local officials. The country’s election is “The biggest achievement of Bosnia and Herzegovina foreign policy since independence in 1992,” boasted the main headline in Friday’s edition of Sarajevo …

Macedonian President Gjorge Ivanov is paying an official visit to Turkey, media reported. Ivanov will meet today in Ankara with his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Ivanov today will lay a wreath at the mausoleum of the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.